Media Bulletin

Future to close gaming mags

Future Publishing has announced the closure of Xbox World and PSM3 magazines as part of an ongoing focus on digital growth.

The final issue of both unofficial gaming magazines will go on sale on 12 December and Future aims to redeploy affected staff across the business.

Clair Porteous, Future's head of entertainment, said in a statement: "This decision has been taken as Future continues to focus on its strategy on accelerating digital growth across its international digitally-focussed brand business."

"Future's gaming portfolio saw over 14m unique users for October 2012 – up over 20% on October 2011. We intend and fully expect there to be no redundancies and will be looking to redeploy all staff within the business."

"Future continues to publish the highly successful Official Magazines for Xbox and PlayStation."

Xbox World was launched by Computec Media in 2003 before being bought by Future later that year alongside sister title PlayStation World.

PSM3 was launced as PSM2 by Future in 2000 and has published over 160 issues.